So I made my way through but now I want to keep improving but I like to do that with some applicable projects. Any suggestions? I was going to look at the API projects there on Codecademy, I was also going to make my way through the Violent Python book.

I loved the fact that Violent Python was all practical projects. I used one of the chapters as a guideline to make something that I had been needing to make for a few months. One of the best books I've read in a while.

Hey m0wgli, if I was looking to go more into pen testing, I would consider it, but right now it's more of a self improvement thing and side hobby. I want to get better at coding so I figure strengthening my scripting skills will help.

I wouldn't necessarily discount a resource because it's not directly in-line with what you're doing. You'll learn a lot by branching out, and the techniques used for one task may be applicable to others as well. There's lso aa somewhat dated Python Cookbook from O'Reilly that is a bit more general than the Violent Python and SecurityTube material.

its not so much about branching out, I do enjoy a bit a pen testing, trying to keep it on the free side or at least less expensive side. Though I just took a gander at them and 250 bucks and lifetime updates, ability to download the material, not too shabby. Hmm, may have to review further. I had a SANS course approved but it is no longer available in on-demand which sort of sucks. So if that doesn't happen I want to fill that study time with something else.

for the price, "SPSE" isnt that bad as I heard from people who took it

Part of learning programming is to read others code & write your own code. practice, practice.Get on "Github", there are chunks of well written networking, pen testing scripts & tools of all levels.search well, download, play around.

Last edited by hurtl0cker on Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough: we must do.” - Bruce Lee

Thanks hurtl0cker, I actually grabbed the Ciphers book a couple weeks ago. Looking forward to reading through that. Going to work my way through violent python. And yes, practice practice practice. I heard someone mention it is best to do a little bit of coding every day than try to do a couple hours in a single day once a week. Get's the repetition thing going. once I've had my fill of python I will head back into more web oriented languages and maybe get my web building up to snuff. My poor domain has laid dormant for far too long and it needs some action.

Have you ever tried Udacity.com? I have completed two of their python courses, CS101 and CS253 Web Development. You might like web dev because it is very practical. I just finished the final exam yesterday and had a lot of fun. Now I have a working blog with cookies/signup/hashing/forms and it uses a datastore (GQL) on google app engine. I learned a ton and Steve Hoffman of reddit fame is the instructor and he has lots of insights. I'm also in the middle of the SPSE and having a good time with that too. Oh and udacity is free.

Yes 101 is the intro to comp sci. It is all python and the main project is building a spyder for a search engine. The prof explains everything well though,starting with strings and eventually getting to OOP.253 is the web dev course. I took about a month for each but I only did 80% of 101 and about 98% of web dev. The final for web dev was to build a wiki which was really easy and fun after doing everything else in the course.